These baptisms have been transcribed by Corney Keller from photographs of Cape Archives VC 645, which is a set of photocopies of the original register made in the 1980s for the Sciences Research Council (HSRC). Copies were donated to the South African Archives, one copy going to the Cape Town repository and another to the Pretoria Repository (where it is part of the FC series). The original register is now housed in the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerkargief, Noordwal-Wes, Stellenbosch, as G3 3/2. They have been added to the eGGSA BDM database.

Our grateful thanks to Corney Keller for the transcriptions and the NGKerkargief for preserving and maintaining these records.

Publishing of extracts from the Grahamstown Jounal continues. I have started to publish them monthly rather than quarterly, as there are more issues of the paper to go through. I only need to transcribe a few more pages and my Word file of GTJ transcriptions will have reached 1,000 pages!

When Keith Meintjes visited South Africa in 2016 he visited the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) Archives in Stellenbosch and photographed, at my request, the baptism, marriage and death registers of the Kruisvalei Congration. With the permission of the NGK Argief, eGGSA is currently transcribing these records in order to add them to the Church Register database on our web site. Marriages 1843 t0 1870 have now been added and are available in the eGGSA marriages database.

Our grateful thanks to Keith, to the NGK Argief and to Lorraine Beechey for transcribing the records.

The Kruisvallei Gemeente was formed in 1843 as a breakaway group from the Tulbagh congregation, due to a disagreement between some of the members on the one hand and the minister at Tulbagh, Robert Shand. They bought the farm called Kruisvallei not far from Tulbagh and used the large stables as a church while the minister lived in the farmhouse. In 1936 the two congregations, Kruisvallei and Tulbagh, were once again united. See the Wikipedia article by Morné van Rooyen: NG gemeente Kruisvallei

The collection of gravestone photographs has now become so large that it is more convenient for it to have a web site of its own. This has, therefore, been done and the gravestones will now be found at http://www.graves-at-eggsa.org/

Links saved from the old site, if you have any stored, will go through correctly to the new site, but if you have stored links that you would like to convert to the new links, then these will be easy to bring into line with the new web site location. The earlier link would have been

http://www.eggsa.org/library/main.php?g2_itemId=2898227 whereas the link from the new web site ishttp://www.graves-at-eggsa.org/main.php?g2_itemId=2898227

so all that needs doing is to replace the eggsa.org/library in the old link with graves-at-eggsa.org to form the new link.

Along the dry and dusty road between Cape Town and Malmesbury lies a stretch of the Swartland known – certainly in the 1800s – as Groote Drooge Vlei (or, alternatively, Droge Vallei). It’s an area I stumbled across searching for the origins of my great-great-grandparents, and one whose history remains elusive.

( click on pic to enlarge, plus more pics )

What we know, it seems, is that it fell within the field-cornetcy of Paardeberg in the District of Malmesbury, part of the quitrent farm having been granted to a C Esterhuysen in 1715 and another to W Proctor on 15 January 1822. Significantly for my own personal research, the section known as Doordrift was granted to Misters WH and JT Eaton on 4 February 1862, as it is this section that came to be known simply as Drooge Vlei.

It is mentioned by the Bishop of Cape Town in the April 1875 edition of The Mission Field, and his description offers some fascinating insight into a place that appears to be a thriving community of its own:

“At Drooge Vlei, a small private station, which I visited on my road, I confirmed five persons. The place, containing about 140 inhabitants, is the property of Mr Eaton, who has built on his farm a school-chapel, where he holds the church service every Sunday, once in English and once in Dutch – Mr Clulee [the Reverend Charles Clulee (1837–1892), born Birmingham] visiting it from Malmesbury and holding service as often as he can … It is a wonderfully complete little town, with it’s smith’s, shoemaker’s, haberdasher’s, grocer’s, butcher’s and baker’s shops, its carpenter’s shed, its wheelwright, machine maker, and brickfields – Mr Eaton being proprietor of the whole and the employer of all the labour at the place.”

Our virtual AGM closed at midnight 28 February 2018. Thank you to all those members who responded to our notice regarding the Annual General Meeting and the support we received for the nominations.

Members were invited to participate in the meeting; and as mentioned in the email dated 22 January 2018, we accepted that members from whom we did not hear were satisfied with the management nominations and 2017 Annual report.

Attendance at the Virtual MeetingMembers who selected eGSSA as their primary branch were entitled to participate in the AGM. Our email package keeps track of the number of emails delivered, returned, forwarded and unread and as the virtual branch we use these figures to determine our quorum.No additional nominations or objections were received for the management positions; the nominations were also uncontested and the 2018 committee will therefore remain unchanged:

There has been a wealth of confusion surrounding these three, and their connection with the name SENIOR/SENYOR/SAYNOR, and I have spent ages sifting through original parish register entries for Sheffield.

As a result I have made a couple of leaps of faith (backed up by the evidence as I see it) which would seem to contradict a lot of "facts" circulating about these families. I'd be grateful if anyone descended from this line can tell me whether I have been literally barking up the wrong tree. I have tried to set out the facts from original sources found whilst at the same time allowing for an element of doubt.

Do you think I am right in thinking that Charles DENTON was not William Senior DENTON's older brother but his stepfather?

Our virtual AGM closed at midnight 2 February 2017. Thank you to all those members who responded to our notice regarding the eGSSA’s Annual General Meeting and the support we received for the nominations.

Members were invited to participate in the meeting; and as mentioned in the email dated 27 January 2017, we accepted that members from whom we did not hear were satisfied with the management nominations and 2016 Annual report.

ATTENDANCE AT THE VIRTUAL MEETING

Members who selected eGSSA as their primary branch were entitled to participate in the AGM. Our email package keeps track of the number of emails delivered, returned, forwarded and unread and as the virtual branch we use these figures to determine our quorum.

Here follows the summary:

Number of members who received notification of the meeting: English Members 147 – 62.2 % opened mailAfrikaans 101 – 58.6 % opened mailUndelivered notifications: Nil

No additional nominations were received for the management positions; the nominations were also uncontested and the 2017 committee will therefore remain unchanged:

This register, of the Anglican pastor at Fort Beaufort (there was no church building at the time), which includes Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, has been transcribed by Lorraine Beechey from Tessa King's photographs of the original register in the Cory Library. Proof read by Brenda Gassner.

Alta Griffiths has scanned several years of this publication and Brenda Gassner and Lorraine Beechey are working their way through these. The first quarter of 1827 has now been added to the Newspaper Extracts section of the eGGSA web site

Additionally, Liz Eshmade has contributed her transcripts of Colin Graham Botha's extracts from from earlier issues of this periodical, Baptisms of English person, 1810-1821, and marriages of English persons, 1806-1821, and these have been added to the BDMs database section of the web site.

Transcriptions of these marriages have been added to the eGGSA BDM database. These are particularly interesting in that they include, for most entries, the ages of the parties and the names of their fathers (as patronyms). This is unusual for NGK (Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk/Dutch Reformed Church) marriages at this period and can be extremely useful for genealogists.

Our thanks to Jonathan Heath, Corney Keller and Richard Ball for the transcriptions.

In the late 1890s and early 1900s George McCall Theal published 35 volumes of "Records of the Cape Colony", covering Colonial Office correspondence from 1793 to 1827 held at what was then the Public Record Office (now the National Archives) in London.

Sue Mackay has checked each of the online copies of these volumes and provided links to them on the eGGSA web site.

Sue writes: these volumes can be freely downloaded (or browsed through on line) via the Internet Archive. Volumes 12 and 13 cover the 1820 settlers, and reproduce a lot of the correspondence I have transcribed on this site, although Theal's work is much more selective and does not include non party leaders or those who did not emigrate. It does, however, include some answers written by the Colonial Office to letters found elsewhere on this site. There is an index in every fifth volume and Volume 35 contains a complete index. Volume 36 is a Register of Contents of Volumes 1-35

Alta Griffiths has scanned several years of this publication and a start has been made on transcribing extracts by Brenda Gassner and Richard Ball. The first extracts, from the year 1826, have been added to the Newspaper Extracts section of the eGGSA web site

Additionally, Liz Eshmade has contributed her transcripts of Colin Graham Botha's extracts from from earlier issues of this periodical, Baptisms of English person, 1810-1821, and marriages of English persons, 1806-1821, and these have been added to the BDMs database section of the web site.

Sue Mackay writes: I have finally been able to photograph the next couple of years, from 1871 onwards, of the Grahamstown Journal at the British Library in London. The first batch can be seen among the eGGSA Newspaper Extracts.

This batch is considerably longer than usual, not only because there are a few lengthy obituaries but because I got seduced by a series of articles on Life at the Diggings, describing the burgeoning businesses at the diamond fields.

Cornel Viljoen has kindly contributed his transcription of the so-called Voortrekker Baptisms, a photocopy in the Pretoria Archives, FK 2290, of an earlier transcription by hands unknown, of baptisms from 1837 to 1850 found in a number of early church registers from Natal, the Free State and the old Transvaal.

Helena has generously contributed her collection of Estate documents (Death Notices, Wills and Liquidation and Distribution accounts) to the online Document Library. She spent much time renaming these to reflect the contents in order to simplify their captioning for the web site, and the captioning was done by Anina du Plessis and completed by Lorraine Beechey.

The baptism register of the Uniondale Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) 1866 to 1920, has been transcribed by Carol Beneke from photographs of the original register taken by Mechelle Beneke at the Church, by agreement with the minister.

These records have been added to the eGGSA BDM database and are now available to searchers. Any queries or corrections can be addressed to Richard Ball.

Richard Wolfaardt's team of transcribers has transcribed Cape Archives IB7 and IB8 passenger lists. These are being compared with IB9 which, in some cases, contains extra information. Added today to the eGGSA Passenger lists database is that of the Gipsy Bride, transcribed by Ray Pitt. A list of the surnames contained in this list can be seen here ....

Londonderry Standard - Thursday 01 April 1858 - Emigration to the Cape. On Saturday, the magnificent 'Black Ball' ship Gipsy Bride, sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, with 500 emigrants, selected by the Hon. William Field, who has been deputed by the Cape Government to represent them in England. They were chosen almost entirely from the pastoral districts of Scotland, and a finer set of people have rarely left our shores. The Aurifera has been chartered for the conveyance of emigrants to Algoa Bay, and she will leave the Mersey on the 22d of April. Liverpool Albion.Courtesy: British Newspaper Archive

Montrose, Arbroath and Brechin review; and Forfar and Kincardineshire advertiser. - Friday 09 July 1858 - Cape of Good Hope. Dr Livingstone's expedition sailed from Table Bay on the 27th Apr8l, for the Zambesi. An elegant silver box, containing 800 guineas, had been presented to Dr Livingstone, as a testimonial, by the colonists. A proposal was made by the Governeor to establish five intermediate posts between the colony and the Zambesi, to ensure a line of monthly communication. A fierce struggle continues on the frontier between the Bisutos and the Orange Free State. Sir G.Grey consented to act as mediator. Two Basuto towns and four French mission stations were destroyed. The colony was peaceful and prosperous. The first batch of emigrants has arrived in the Gipsy Bride and gave great satisfaction.Courtesy: British Newspaper Archive

Reynolds's Newspaper - Sunday 11 September 1859 - Emigration to the Cape of Good Hope.

The Cape Town Immigration Board at their last meeting, a few days before the departure of the mail, resolved to forward the following communication to the Emigration Commissioner in England.

Immigration Office, Cape Town, July 30, 1859.The Honorable W.Field Esq., Emigration Commissioner, London.Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of three letter from you of the 6th ultimo, acquainting me, for the information of the Immigration Board, of the departure of the Burlington with emigrants on the 30th May, and of your having chartered the Lord Raglan to convey emigrants to Table Bay, which were to embark on the 16th instant. The board instructs me to inform you that the immigrants per Bride have all taken employment, and with the exception of a few, have quitted the depot - those remaining being the parents of children suffering from measles. Several remained also for some days owing to the unfavourable state of the weather, and the difficulty existing at the present time in procuring conveyance for their removal to the interior. The wages obtained by most of them are quite equal to former rates, as will be seen by a list accompanying this. The board desires me to call your attention to the circumstance of one of the immigrants per Bride, named Simon Lucas, having died of consumption the day after his arrival, and would recommend a more strict inquiry into the health of emigrants generally, and that none be sent out but such as are and have been for some time in perfect health, and in the habit of working for wages. Lucas, according to the statement of the surgeon-superintendant, Dr Pearce, came on board in a very delicate and precarious state of health, showing evident symptoms of consumption; and it has come to the knowledge of the board that several sent out on former occasions, particularly of the Scotch per Gipsy Bride, were invalids in search of health, some of whom have died, and a few recovered. Lucas leaves a wife and six children, with the prospect of a seventh, all of whom continue at the depot at the expense of the Government. With regard to farm labourers, the board considers it most undesirable that such immigrants should be encumbered with large families, and particularly with any number of young children, such operation as a hindrance to their obtaining ready employment, the wages they receive are sometimes as inadequate to meet their expenses that they naturally feel dissatisfied, and become disheartened. The board deem sit necessary to remark upon the practice adopted in some cases by the immigrants themselves of describing a man incorrectly in regard to his trade or calling, in proof of which I herewith enclose a list of names of men who declared the were refused to be received under the head of their proper calling, but were allowed to enter themselves under some other head, in order to render themselves eligible. This false statement has given rise to considerable unpleasantness and disappointment in one or two cases; it misleads the public, and causes the immigrant who refuses employment to suffer. ...W.Hampson, Secretary. The following is the scale of wages at which engagements were made in Cape Town by the immigrants per Bride: - Farm labourers £2 to £2.10s with board and lodging, and 3s to 4s per day without ditto; railway labourers, 4s6d to 5s per day; stonemasons 6s6d per day; wheelwrights 6s; sawyers, piece-work, equal to 6s to 7s per day; [s]bines makers, 5s to 7s per day; tailors, piece-work, 4s to 5s per day; painters and glaziers, £3.10s per month and found, or piece-work; brickmakers, piece-work; dressmakers, £1.10s per month and found; female cooks, £1 to £2 per month and found.

Transcription of the Cape Town Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) membership lists by Corney Keller have now been completed up to 1712. He has transcribed the earliest of such lists, 1665 to 1712, now available on the eGGSA website: Cape Town Memberships 1665-1832. More will be added in the future.

Proving your lineage can be useful for a number of reasons: citizenship, estates, family and general history. For a while British ancestry visas were available for descendants either of whose grandparents were born in Britain. Then the Irish ancestry became easier than the British ancestry. With the tightening of immigration to Britain, the chance of getting or even renewing British passport has become stricter. For some dual citizenship, South African and British may be a privilege of the past but we hope not.

The burial register of Christchurch (Anglican), Grahamstown, 1877-1917, has been transcribed by Lorraine Beechey using William Jervois' photographs of the original register in the Cory Library, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, MS 17 633, by agreement with the Cory Library and the Archdiocese of Grahamstown. Brenda Gassner did the proof reading.

These records have been added to the eGGSA BDM database and are now available to searchers. Any queries or corrections can be addressed to Richard Ball at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

These have been transcribed from Cape Archives classes IBC 7 and IBC 9 by Richard Wolfaardt and his intrepid team of volunteers, to whom our grateful thanks. A list of surnames on these three ships can be seen here ... . Queries or corrections to Richard Ball

Evening Mail - Wednesday 01 June 1859. Government Emigration - The Government emigrant vessel Burlington, 676 tons, Captain Victor Howes, sailed from Southampton on Monday, the 30th ult., for Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, with 267 emigrants under charge of Surgeon-Superintendant Samuel Leonard Crarie, M.D. The emigrants who embarked in this vessel were selected by the Hon. William Field, the officer appointed by the Colonial Government to conduct the emigrantion to the Cape of Good Hope. (Courtesy British Newspaper Archive online)

Hereford Times - Saturday 20 August 1859. Emigration to the Cape of Good Hope. On the 12th inst. there were embarked at Liverpool, under the superintendance of the Hon. Mr. Field, in the ship Matilda Atheling, for Table Bay, 288 emigrants. They were principally agricultural labourers and female domestic servants, with some country masons, blacksmiths, and joiners. They comprise also 53 statute adults, under engagement with Messrs. Pickering, contractors for the Cape Town Railway. The emigration to this colony during the present year has now reached a total of 2,588 souls, exclusive of assisted passages. (Courtesy British Newspaper Archive online)

London Evening Standard - Tuesday 21 May 1861. Free Emigration to the Cape of Good Hope. The Sedgemoor, of 920 tons, Captain M.W.Kett, being the 28th free emigrant ship dispatched at the colonial expense, sailed from Southampton for Table Bay on Saturday last, with a selection made from the artisans and agricultural classes by the acting emigration agent for the colony, Mr A.C. Saunders. They number 283 souls, equal to 223 statute adults, and are under the general charge of Mr. Surgeon Superintendent S.P.Chennell. Mr Saunders appointed from among them John M'Kay to be schoolmaster, Jane M'Connell to be matron, and Alice Wright to be sub-matron. The free emigration to the Cape, under the local act of 1857, has now reached a total of 8260 souls. (Courtesy British Newspaper Archive online)

Stamouers.com

This Web Site, created by André van Rensburg, is now maintained by eGGSA.

It provides details of South African Progenitors / Original Immigrants and their children, as contributed by individual researchers. Please consider adding your Progenitors' details - visit it here: Stamouers.com

eGSSA serves its members by:

providing information, publications and research education

establishing important links with other groups world-wide.

increasing public awareness of opportunities for discovering family history.

promoting interest in the fascinating field of genealogy.

promoting a number of projectsaimed at expanding the availability of South African genealogical sources online.

For many years, there have been people who, for various reasons, could not join a regular GSSA branch. Some of these reasons include living too far from a branch or living outside South Africa. These people still have a need to belong to a branch and to enjoy the benefits of GSSA membership, such as receiving GSSA's journal, Familia. eGSSA has been established to meet these needs. This is an ideal opportunity to become part of GSSA and to step into this exciting era.

At eGSSA we have an Online shop where you can buy the various publications of the Genealogical Society of South Africa, as well as a number of other genealogical, historical and cultural items.